Pages

Monday, March 31, 2014

To give his outrageous immigration assertion a veneer of bipartisanship, Vice President Joe Biden quoted Theodore Roosevelt on Americanism to imply that it is all about principles, ideals and character.

So let me get this right. These supposed "Undocumented Americans" (read illegal immigrants) either entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas, essentially cutting in line in front of foolish foreigners who followed official American immigration rules.

In order to stay in the country they stay in the shadows. In real terms, that means that either they support themselves by working "under the table" and not paying the taxes that Mr. Biden has said is a patriotic duty. Another way to work is by stealing someone's social security number in order to present papers to work "legally". If a citizen did that, that would be a felony for the Social Security slight of hand and also liable for identity theft civil lawsuits.

Theodore Roosevelt was keen on not having hyphenated Americans. Considering the numbers of "Undocumented Americans" coming from south of the border, this is accomplished as they do not even consider themselves Americans. If there is not a blanket amnesty, many plan to make their money working for a while in the US and returning home.

So much for principles, ideals and character of these "already Americans" living in the shadows.

Conservatives and Tea Party types celebrate new Americans who honor the legal immigration system. But Americanism as espoused by TR is not achieved by effectively indiscriminate amnesty or by refusing to enforce existing immigration laws.

Americans are infamous for being blissfully ignorant about areas beyond their shores. Unfortunately, this geographic illiteracy is applicable for places between our borders.

A new study commissioned by the Movoto real estate company asked 400 Americans to locate seven states on a map within five seconds. The average score was 3.4 states. Those surveyed were likely to locate some of the more iconic states, as well as those states not part of the contiguous 48 states.

Movoto opined that plenty of the quiz takers were guessing their way through New England. In addition, a sizable number of those surveyed mistook Pennsylvania for New York. Survey takers also made many mistakes in the Mountain West which borders are divided by straight lines.

Watch the video with the real time responses from the survey.

As someone who loves geographic, and who always sought blue slices when playing Trivial Pursuit, the Genus edition, this Geographic Illiteracy Illustrated is disheartening. Consider the geographic knowledge which Fourth Graders were expected to know in 1862.

But such young skulls full of mush who are clued into pop culture would score well if they were on SNL's Black Jeopardy, where does not depend upon having a clue of real knowledge but having the right attitude.

As concerned citizens attempt to stop the steam rolling of Common Core curriculum confusion, these engaged individuals ought to also stress geographic as part of the diversity education rather than just feeling good about being a progressive American Idiot who is left with little choice but to be a drone for the neo-statist agenda.

Didn't the George Orwell dystopian novel nineteen eighty-four begin with the ominous phrase "It was a bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. That's not military time or being an Euro poseur. The clock's thirteenth stroke indicates an event which calls into question everything previously believed.

Or it could just be extra-legal Obamacare extensions by the Executive Branch electoral whimsy. When Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made motions do delay things, he was vilified. When President Obama and his HHS minion Kathleen Sebilius do the same thing, the Cocktail Party nomenklatura and the lapdog Lamestream Media let is pass without comment.

It's not just that the Obamacare (ironically officially titled the Affordable Care Act) is not just bad law which does not accomplish its alleged objectives. This capriciously changing countdown to Obamacare is instilling a culture of lawlessness in our governance and consolidates Executive Power at the expense of the will of the people embodied in the legislative branch and the states.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Vin Scully, the legendary 86 year old Hall of Fame broadcaster of the Dodgers since 1950, is well renowned for his dulcet voice and steady demeanor. These professional attributes were at the forefront during the bottom of the sixth inning of Freeway Series Exhibition ballgame between the l.A. Dodgers and the L.A.Angels of Anaheim when an earthquake shook Dodger Stadium.

Some say that Scully's laid back attitude toward the shaking was typically LA. Others may point to Scully's 65 year experience in being a consummate professional. Both of those points have elements of truth to it. However, one should not discount Scully's sunny disposition. Scully's call projects a calm cheerfulness which invites viewers into the action. This understated announcing would not emphasize the geologic event.

That being said, Vin Scully sounds best when speaking in his own voice. The Ozzie accent which Scully tongue-in-cheek started the 2014 MLB Season Opening Day in Sydney Australia rubbed some baseball fans the wrong way.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Kayla Danielle Reyes-Abina , a 21 year old military veteran who had deployed in Afghanistan, recently had a remarkable rejection for a sales position at Macy's in Fresno, California.
The former army specialist who served in the National Guard posted her frustration on Instagram after her February 20th interview. Ms. Reyes-Abina believes that the Fresno hiring manager had a dramatic attitude change after learning that she had been deployed in overseas combat zones.

Although Ms. Reyes-Abina had prior retail experience working at Target, but the Macy’s hiring manager targeted her military experience. The interviewer is said to have implied that since Reyes-Abina has been to war, she had a “different mindset” which would be unwelcomed on the sales floor. The interviewer intimated: “Once a customer’s in your face, you wouldn’t know how to do it. You wouldn’t know how to react.

Ms. Reyes-Abina recalled the hiring manager saying: 'Well I've been here 15 years, I know you wouldn't be able to do good here” The 15 year Macy’s veteran suggested that Reyes-Abina would be a better fit in “loss prevention” (i.e. security guard). Reyes-Abina left the interview wondering if her military experience did her a disservice when applying for civilian jobs.

[***]

The 1% of our population who have served in America’s armed forces are highly motivated and disciplined. Most joined knowing that they would likely deploy in two active combat zones. Veterans are 45% more likely to be entrepreneurs but all are trained to be dependable and follow instructions. In addition, those who have served in Afgahanistan and Iraq are accustomed with interacting with “customers” who are not always friendly and have different directed interests.

While there is an online petition on behalf of Ms. Reyes-Abina, it hinges on “discrimination”, which may not be illegal, unless it pertains to race, sex, creed (and sexual orientation in some jurisdictions). But if the facts in this case are true, Macy’s should be ashamed for their bias and reconsider their practices.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

In a wide ranging interview with New Yorker magazine, Kobe Bryant was asked about the widespread displays of solidarity in reaction to the Trayvon Martin shooting in 2012. In fact, the Miami Heat posed in hoodies in homage to the slain teen domicilled in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Bryant’s reticent reaction to the iconic Miami Heat hoodies pose is in sharp contrast to the politically correct groupthink amongst African American activists just weeks after the incident and even before George Zimmerman was charged.

Bryant’s insistence of thinking for himself and not jumping to conclusions based upon group identity shows prudence in the traditional sense.

Unfortunately, in this American Wonderland, such judicious and independent thinking is unacceptable for celebrities who seek to profit from popularity in these politically correct times. For instance, The Urban Times alleged:

Over the span of Kobe Bryant‘s career….we’ve seen him do and say some very smug, cavalier and even cornball things at times but the comments that he made regarding the Miami Heat‘s support after Trayvon Martin was killed…by far takes the cake!

So unity must overcome all. The piece progressed to pummel Bryant for not appreciating how he appealed to racial solidarity when there was the Colorado rape allegation from “a less than African American female.”

As the social media firestorm blazed, the career Laker seemed to walk back his diffidence. Bryant tweeted:

Margaret Sanger was the founder of the American Birth Control League in 1921 (which was the forerunner of Planned Parenthood of America). At first blush, it may seem striking for a progressive to ally with the Ku Klux Klan. However, Sanger's eugenic ideas aimed at "inferior" unwanted minorities certainly appealed to the KKK. Moreover, the KKK's anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant auspices aligns with Sanger's project to progressively control birth.

No one is more deserving of this honor than Leader Pelosi, who
has fought tirelessly throughout her career to protect and expand
women’s access to health care. As the first woman to serve as Speaker of
the House, Leader Pelosi recognized that women’s health is a mainstream
issue impacting women and families.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Back in 2001, when Barack Obama was just a community organizer and State Legislator, he made some remarkable observations about the US Constitution.

Some of these remarks resurfaced during the final stretch of the 2008 Presidential campaign, particularly Mr. Obama's January 2001 interview on Chicago Public Radio. Mark Levin offered an incisive analysis of Obama's constitutional interpretations.

McNaughton wanted to depict the plight of the common man in the wake of Obama's redistribution of wealth and trampling upon the rights in the Constitution. However, the painter insists that both parties are guilty of trampling upon our fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Mc Naughton hopes to inspire a metanoia where Americans return to the principles of the Constitution with a limited government, when individual and states' rights are protected and without the encumbrance of entitlement programs. As we see the lawless manner which the federal government is acting along with its insatiable hunger for revenue and aggregating power for apparatchniks and Cocktail Party Nomenklatura in the District of Calamity (sic), may Americans be reawakened to defending Constitutional first principles. h/t: Jon Mc NaughtonMark Levin

When MSNBC was reporting on the Hobby Lobby which was going to be argued before the US Supreme Court, Joy Reid's video package included some naked Catholic bigotry.

Rather than settle for arguing the merits of Sebilius v. Hobby Lobby for the State (as is MSDNC's wont) on whether corporate personhood can include religious convictions, Joy Reid impeached the credentials of two thirds of the nation's highest court based on religion.

To think that an originalist like Associate Justice Antonin Scalia or natural law jurist like Associate Justice Clarence Thomas would vote en bloc with their wise Latina co-religionist Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor is drinking liberally spiked Kool-Aid around the ugly fever swamp.

Jeff Dunetz observed that MSNBC is hypersensitive about racial implications. So if court commentators hypothetically opined about three African American judges voting together, this would be condemned as racism. Dunetz, who writes Yid with Lid, noted: "However because Joy Reid was questioning Catholic judges, it’s no big
deal. In the world of the mainstream media it’s only bigotry when
directed toward certain groups, blacks, women, Muslims, Hispanics, etc.". Yet liberals are quick to condemn conservatives for supposedly judging people because of their race or creed.

It is sad that unwarranted accusations against certain groups of faithful, such as Roman Catholics or Latter Day Saints (Mormons) are accepted by progressive posses but judging the actions and expressed intentions of Salaphist or Jihadist Muslims is quickly condemned as "racism".

Ms. Reid's read of the Catholic cabal on the Supreme Court proved to be quite mistaken. Arguments before the high court had Justices gravitating their questions from ideological and gender groupings, not from shared creed.

In fact, based upon early reporting, the more overt allusions to applications of faith to legal hypotheticals was a question from Associate Justice Samuel Alito , who queried Solicitor General Donald Verrelli (arguing the Obama Administration's case) whether halal or kosher butchers could be banned if legislators passed an animal cruelty law like Denmark. Verrelli's answer was that they could get standing with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but they better get their cases to court by raising claims on behalf of their customers using the First Amendment.

While CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Verrelli's two hours of arguments a "train wreck" for the Obama Administration, other liberal commentators dissented.

Let us hope that in late June when the contraception cases are likely to be issued that the Lamestream Media can contain their contemptible secularist biogotry against the faithful. But that is expecting a minor miracle from the media.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Last month, Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) was asked by a reporter what he thought about the Tea Party and the senior Senator said: "That is something that I don't know a lot about." The six term Senator is being challenged by State Senator Chris McDaniel (R-MS 42nd, Ellisville) a Tea Party inspired Republican primary challenger. A month later, Senator Cochran did not seem much more clued in.

It is curious that news of the Tea Party phenomenon had difficulty reaching Senator Cochran's Cocktail Party in the District of Calamity. After all, the Tea Party recently celebrate its fifth anniversary and gave the GOP the impetus to net 60 seats and regain control of the House of Representatives in 2011.

While it is possible that the 76 year old Senator Cochran was feigning ignorance about the Tea Party so as not to give his Tea Party challenger more credence. If that is so, it might not have been wise for Senator Cochran to partially echo Will Rogers charming deprecation “Well, what shall I talk about? I ain't got anything funny to say. All I know is what I read in the papers" as he launched into his vaudeville schtick. As delightful as Will Roger's homespun wisdom sounds, he died in 1935 which is two years before Thad Cochran was born, which further contributes to the out of touch impression.

Some might claim that this is a prima facia example of why there ought to be term limits for elected federal officials. Personally, I am chary about term limits on Congress as the will of the people should not be impinged as there are regular elections and the power of an individual legislator is limited.

That being said, the electorate needs to think about their franchise. Typically, Congress fails in favorability polls on the whole but these same people think that their elected officials are fine. Cochran served three terms in the House before being elected to Senate in 1978. Mississippi voters need to discern if seniority is more important that being in touch with the electorate.

University of Virginia political pundit Professor Larry Sabato has observed that the Mississippi primary is the most likely race of 2014 in which a challenger can win. Magnolia State voters will decide when their primary is held on June 2nd.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Last month, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent out a fundraising letter for the Florida 13th Congressional Special Election to support their candidate Alex Sink. This Congressional race, where Democrats outspent Republicans on television by a 4 to 1 margin, centered on the Affordable Care Act. Sink promised to reform Obamacare whereas Tea Party inspired Republican challenger David Jolly (R-FL 13th) advocated outright overturning Obamacare.After Jolly won the Special Election, the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) had some fun doing red pen edits on this DCCC messaging missive. Democrats could not stop spinning the Sink hole. DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) sounded like Baghdad Bob in her spin control for the loss on the race.

[L] DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) [R] Baghdad Bob

Undoubtedly, Democrats will follow an Alinskyite approach to campaigning, demonizing an archtypical opponent, be it the Koch Brothers or House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH 8th). But even after ad hominen attacks and class warfare campaigns, Democrats will need a positive message. The minimum wage hike is more of a minor wedge issue which pays off its union support (by raising pay scales for all unionized employees) but it will need an overarching issue. After the results from the Florida 13 Special Election, it will be interesting if they double down and remain all in by running on Obamacare elsewhere. It could be, as national Democrats are encouraging Ms. Sink to run again against Jolly in the November General Election. Maybe that is a hangover from Sink's jolly concession speech.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Pi day (3/14) was created in 1988 by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium. Some refer to Shaw as the Prince of Pi.

In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (HRES 224) which proclaimed 3/14 as National Pi Day. Do you think that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 6th) really likes Pi or just wanted to give some sweet stuff to her constituent? Perhaps she wanted a House warming gift for a Tea Party?

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th), a second term constitutional conservative from Spartanburg, South Carolina, had some choice words in support of H.R. 4138 Enforce the Law Act.

)

As a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, Gowdy might have good reason to critique Barack Obama with his own words for not enforcing immigration law, DOMA, and even inconvenient aspects of Obamacare.

The House of Representatives passed HR. 4138 by a 233 to 181 margin, including five Democrat votes. President Obama has promised to veto the legislation should it ever reach his desk. But based on the intransigence of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the bill should be dead on arrival as it reaches the upper chamber.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

During a debate on the House floor on the Enforce the Law Act bill (H.R.4138), Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX 18th) offered angry oratory on clearly defining what was Constitutional. The problem is that her preamble implies that American has been operating under our Constitution for 400 years.

Unfortunately for the "gentle-lady" from Houston, the Constitution has only been ratified since 1789, which is 234 years ago.

To be charitable, perhaps Ms. Jackson Lee intended to refer to English settlements in the New World, from which the American Republic has a nexus. Using Representative Jackson Lee's chronology, maybe she meant the Jamestown Colony, which was established in 1607 and briefly abandoned in 1610. Popular culture considers the Pilgrims settlement in the Plymouth Colony in 1620. Yet the rules used in both charters did not embody the constitutional protections which Jackson Lee extolled. But at least Ms. Jackson Lee was more on base with her Constitutional claim than in 1997 when Jackson Lee asked a NASA scientist in a Congressional hearing if the Mars Pathfinder had photographed the flag that Neil Armstrong had planted on the moon.

Maybe Congresswoman Jackson Lee ought to crack open her pocket Constitution instead of just brandishing it as a prop. But such a modest proposal coming from the wrong source might be considered too bossy .

Alex Sink, the Democrat candidate for Congress in the Special Election in District-13, had a jovial concession speech. Shortly after the polls closed showing that she had lost by two percent, Sink addressed supporters to let them know that she had called her victorious opponent Congressman-Elect Dave Jolly (R-FL 13th) and thank her supporters. All of that is standard fare. However Sink's plucky peroration "[A]though we are disappointed, the bars are open--let's enjoy our friendship" is unusual in openly embracing drowning sorrows.

)

A more subtle detail about Sink's concession speech is the lack of fellow Democrat dignitaries on the dais. Sink was not a shot in the dark candidate. Sink was married to Bill McBride, a Florida politician who unsuccessfully ran for Governor in 202. In her own right, Sink had been Florida's Chief Financial Officer before gaining the Democrat nomination for Governor in 2010 and only lost in the general election by 1%.

When 22 term Congressman Bill Young (R-FL 13th) died in October, a special election was called in a Pinellas County based District that is only R+1 and had voted for Obama in the last two Presidential elections. The Florida Democrat party cleared the field for Sink to run.

Over $10 million was spent in this Special Election campaign and Democrats outspent unknown Jolly on negative television ads 4 to 1. Democrats sent high profile surrogates, including former President Bill Clinton, to campaign for sink. So much was invested in this race as Democrats considered it a must win since this Special Election was a test run for Democrat messaging for Obamacare. Sink campaigned that she would help fix Obamacare, whereas Tea Party inspired attorney David Jolly advocated complete repeal.

Congressman-elect David Jolly (R-FL 13th)

Jolly can not savor his success for long. The special election was only for the nine months remaining on the term. Moreover, Jolly only won by two percent which is not a comfortable margin of victory in that district. However, if one considers how much Jolly was outspent along with the high profile elements of the Sink campaign, this Special Election may be a bellweather to Democrat success in the November General Election. Perhaps "[A]though we are disappointed, the bars are open--let's enjoy our friendship" may be prophetic words for Democrats.